


Noise Complaint

by Anonymous



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blanket Permission, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Enemies to People Who Ignore Each Other to ???, Gen, Gen or Pre-Slash, Hurt/Comfort, POV Alternating, Podfic Welcome, Post-Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie), Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Rejoins the Avengers, We Die Like Fen 4: We Lived to Die Afen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-08
Updated: 2020-09-08
Packaged: 2021-03-07 07:22:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26349298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: After Age of Ultron, Tony's retirement doesn't last long. He's back with the Avengers, but he's having trouble with the new team. Or rather, one specific member of the new team. After all, his weapons blew up Wanda Maximoff's childhood. He figures she doesn't really want him around.
Relationships: Wanda Maximoff & Tony Stark
Comments: 4
Kudos: 49
Collections: Anonymous, We Die Like Fen 4: We Lived to Die Afen





	Noise Complaint

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Hecate](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hecate/gifts).



> Hecate, I hadn't thought about these two together before, but it was really interesting to consider how they may play off of each other! 
> 
> Written for We Die like Fen 4: We Lived to Die Afen

Tony wasn't meant to overhear the conversation. He knew that, and it was his own fault for having the audio on in the security room as he idly ran over the protocols to make sure the new Avenger's compound was secure.

Still, it smarted, seeing Steve and Wanda in the kitchen, Steve doing his deliberately casual lean against the counter as he asked Wanda, "Will it bother you, having him here? I know that you and Stark…" 

Cap trailed off, letting silence fill in the dirty details. That Tony's bombs had destroyed her home. That she had nearly destroyed the world, trying to get back at him. There was a whole messy, nasty, brutal history between them, and there was Cap, trying to diplomatically ask if it was going to be alright. 

Tony sighed, leaning in the chair and throwing his arms up in a gesture of private surrender. He shouldn't have come back here. Sure, things between him and Pepper hadn't worked out and his 'retirement' had turned out to feel like ten thousand needles being shoved under his fingernails. Being Iron Man, being a hero, it was as vital to his being as blood or air, but he didn't need to come back _here_. He could move to California, the West Coast had a few up and coming heroes that could use some mentoring. 

But Rhodey was here, and Steve, and Natasha, and they were family, damn it. Tony didn't _want_ to leave. But maybe it would be best. 

Wanda's answer broke through his circling, miserable thoughts. She was still staring down at the stove, spoon still stirring the pot of whatever she was making, when she said, slowly, "My actions lead to what happened in Sokovia. It wasn't what I wanted, or intended, but it happened. Stark didn't want or intend to destroy my home, my childhood. And from what I've learned, he changed when he realized the results of his actions." Wanda lifted the spoon and tapped it delicately against the side of the pot. "I am trying to change too." 

That was a more gracious interpretation than he deserved. Tony gave a heavy exhale, tipped forward again, and turned off the audio. 

* * *

Wanda was pretty sure Tony was avoiding her. It was probably for the best, considering...everything. Still, it felt odd, like there was a ghost in the compound. She only saw him out of the corner of her eye, and or heard about from him other people. He'd join the training sessions, but he never paired off with her. And outside of official exercises, their paths never crossed. She never ate with him, never hung out with him, never saw him as more than a vague passing glance. 

Tony had only started living in the compound full-time with the rest of them three weeks ago. Already, though, the anxiety of it was starting to itch under her skin. Did he think she shouldn't be on the team? Was he scared of her? Did Steve recommend he stay away, out of some misguided attempt to protect her? 

"How am I supposed to fight alongside him if I don't even know him?" she finally snapped out to Natasha one day over their regular game of poker. It had started as a way to get Wanda used to the rules of the game, and quickly moved on to 'How can we use your powers to cheat at cards?' Natasha insisted on calling it a training exercise, but Wanda was starting to believe this was just how she made friends. 

"It's not great," Natasha said, shuffling the deck in slow motion so Wanda could see how she used her thumb to adjust the card order. "But Tony's probably just trying to make things easier. He's fought alongside us before, and he's good in a pinch. You can trust him."

"Can he trust me?" Wanda pointed out. "I'm getting worried he thinks I shouldn't be here. He didn't sign off on it or anything. And do that again, I was distracted." 

Natasha squared the deck off again and ran through the shuffle once more. "If Stark had worries about you, they would have come up before now," she said as she worked. "You can bet he's briefed himself on your capabilities and assessed your benefit to the team. Now you try."

Natasha passed the deck over to Wanda, who took it and looked at Natasha for a long moment. "You're confident. That means a lot. But I don't actually know _him_. This," Wanda held up the deck of cards and waved them at Natasha, "is how we learn to trust. How can I trust him to have my back if the man won't even spend time in the same room as me?" 

Natasha gave Wanda a piercing gaze. "And you'd be comfortable with him around?" 

Wanda sighed and looked away, brushing her thumb along the edges of the playing cards. "No. Not at first. But I'm never going to get comfortable if he keeps avoiding me." 

Natasha hummed, considering. "I see that. Okay, I'll see what I can do." She leaned forward, gesturing toward the deck of cards. "Come on, your turn." 

* * *

Tony looked away from Natasha's intense glare. "I wasn't trying to avoid her," he muttered. 

Natasha snorted, which was probably all the grace that deserved. 

"These things take time!" Tony protested. "We've gone from enemies to two people who are ignoring each other! Progress!" 

Natasha reached forward and gently cuffed him alongside his head. "And you won't make any more unless you talk. Come on Tony, you're smarter than this." 

And normally Tony so enjoyed people flattering his intelligence. He sighed and tried pouting at her instead of words.

"Join the next meal," Natasha said, completely disregarding his pout. "Talk. You're good at that." 

Tony took a deep breath. Natasha was right. He was better than this. Just because he was feeling tired and too old for this but not good for anything else and completely unable to outrun the mistakes of his past—

No. If he spent time wallowing he'd never get anything done. If he was going to be on the team, he needed to be on the team, and not just hang around the parts that made him feel comfortable. 

"You're right," he said, acquisiesing. "I'll go to dinner…" Tony pulled out his calender. "I'm actually due in New York for a board briefing, I'll be gone for three days. But," Tony tucked the calender away again, "when I'm back, I'll stop being such a recluse. Promise." 

Unfortunately, just as the three-day marathon of board meetings, facility tours, and painfully polite brunch with Pepper concluded, his watch chirped. Avengers Assemble. 

Apparently some idiot was upriver on the Hudson, pointing a sonic gun at the sky, trying to create a hurricane. 

"So a guy is pointing an airhorn at the clouds while doing the evil genius rant. Why are we getting called in?" Tony asked F.R.I.D.A.Y., as he suited up. 

"He's trying to make a hurricane. Apparently," her warm Irish tones echoed through the suit, "weather forecasters believe he's succeeding." 

"Ah yes, that would be very bad. Alright! Off we go!"

Once Tony arrived on the scene, he had to appreciate the guy's aesthetics, if not his ambition. Stretching jutting into the Hudson was an island of machine (no, wait, it was attached at one bank, a peninsula of machine) made up of seven large satellite looking dishes, blasting solid sound at the sky. The noise seemed to be hyper-directed, so it wasn't loud, but the shimmering wall of distorted air screamed danger. 

"What happens if I fly into that wall of sound?" Tony asked F.R.I.D.A.Y., considering his strategy. 

"How much do you like your internal organs?" she asked. 

"I'll stay away," he decided. 

Each of the dishes also came with it's very own auto-turret, which was spraying bullets at the rest of the Avengers, who had managed to beat him to the site. 

"Hey Cap!" Tony said, swinging down next to Steve. "I understand we have a noise complaint." 

"Focus on the turrets!" Steve snapped back, all business. "Someone's in the center controlling it. But that sonic wall makes it nearly impossible to get to them, and the turrets make it almost impossible to get to the sonic generators. Stop the turrets, stop the generators, stop the person in the middle." 

"Love a good plan," Tony said. "Turrets, destroy them. On it." 

The team was doing a good job tearing the thing apart. Rhodey let off a swarm of rockets that knocked one turret out, and on his left, Tony followed a flash of red light. Wanda was there, ripping apart another turret with shreds of red power, deflecting bullets as she did so. She looked like something out of mythology. Normally, magic gave Tony the shivers and a strong desire to be somewhere _else_ but watching Wanda work simply filled him with awe. 

A blur of movement from inside the shield and drew Tony's attention. It was hard to tell through the distortion the soundwaves made in the air, but it seemed like—

A twitch of machinery came from the base of one of the dishes. Tony felt a sudden flare of _danger_ as tens of thousands of hours spent studying and making machines kicked in to let him guess what would happen next. "Watch out!" Tony called down to the team, "The dishes are going to—" 

The dish in front of Wanda abruptly swung 90 degrees, it's sonic blast arching out and crashing into her. She screamed as the force of the airwaves threw her backward and slammed through the windows of a riverfront building. 

_Shit._ Tony flared his repulsers and shot after her.

"Warmachine, Falcon, take the opening!" Steve shouted. "Wanda—" 

"I've got Wanda," Tony called back to the team. 

"Status update when you have it," Steve ordered, then went back to barking orders on how to get the machine taken apart. 

Tony slowed down when he reached the windows of the building. The last thing the building needed was more shrapnel flying around. He delicately picked his way through the broken glass and turned on his external light, shining it around the dark interior of the shop. 

It was a clothing boutique, and Tony could follow the trail of disturbed clothing racks to— 

There she was. Slumped against the counter, pale and unconscious, blood trickling out her nose. 

"Oh, no, no no, come on, be okay," Tony muttered as he flipped the suit helmet up and ordered his right hand to retract. He laid two fingers against the pulse point on her neck, and breathed a sigh of relief as he felt her heartbeat thud loud and firm through her veins. 

"She's alive," Tony called through the comm. "Unconscious. Needs a doctor." 

She looked so fragile. Tony was filled with a surge of protectiveness. He should have been protecting her. 

He knew the thought was useless as soon as he thought it. He pictured Pepper burning with Extremis, Natasha grinning with blood in her teeth, Maria peeling off her helmet in exhausted triumph, her enemies sprawled at her feet. The women in his life had never really needed his protecting. And neither did Wanda, fierce and powerful. 

"Can you get her out?" Steve asked, and there was a moment of hesitation in his voice. "I think we've go this handled here." 

"Don't worry, Cap, I got her." 

Tony reached forward, gently lifting Wanda's body up off the floor, checking to make sure he wasn't hurting her more. It was less than a ten minute flight to the Avenger Compound from here. Fastest way to move her would be to fly. 

"See you all back at the compound," Tony said, and with Wanda held gently in his arms, he launched into the air. 

* * *

Wanda woke up, and she was suddenly aware that she was in a tremendous amount of pain. She snapped her jaw closed, not letting her instinctive groan escape through her jaw. You couldn't let them know when it hurt. They might stop. They might not stop. Either way, you were giving up control. 

As her other senses rose past the pain in her awareness, Wanda remembered she wasn't with Hydra anymore, she wasn't being experimented on daily. She just wasn't sure where she _was_. There was wind rushing past her, a rush against her skin and a dull roar, and something hard under her shoulders and at the backs of her knees, holding her up. 

Wanda slowly opened her eyes, and was surprised to see the red and gold mask of Iron Man staring back at her. She froze, not sure what to say. 

Iron Man talked first, Tony's voice coming through the speakers. "Don't worry," he said, his voice somehow rich even through the speakerbox of the suit. "We're just getting you to safety. Almost home." 

Wanda darted a glance down, saw the scenery racing underneath them, then back up at Tony, trying to figure out what to say. 

Before she could think of anything, the sound of a throat clearing echoed through the suit, and Tony said, "So…" before trailing off. 

Apparently he was feeling tongue-tied too. 

"I can fly," Wanda said shortly, trying to cut off the awkwardness before it could get any worse. 

"I know, but indulge me," Tony replied quickly. "When I found you, you were bleeding from your nose. That's usually a bad sign. If there isn't a 'Don't Bleed Internally and Drive' law, there should be." 

Wanda was surprised to find she had a laugh inside her. It broke out at the hypocrisy of that particular statement. "A law you'd have broken many times, if if existed." 

"You got me," Tony laughed too, and his arms shifted a little, holding her even more comfortably and securely. "Do as I say, not as I do. But don't worry, we're nearly there." 

Wanda turned to the horizon, and sure enough, there was the shape of the complex, stretched out against the green of upstate New York. 

Tony flew through the wide upstairs entrance for the flyers in the group, and kept his grip on her all the way to Dr. Helen Cho's medical lab. He must have called ahead, because she was already waiting with a couple of her medics, ready to jump into action. Tony gently settled Wanda down in the waiting wheelchair, sliding off his mask and running his fingers through his dark hair. 

Wanda found herself oddly transfixed by his face, as a drone of conversation about the fight and what took her out swirled around her. She hadn't seen it so close before, unmasked. Not since the whole blur of Ultron. He looked tired. And kind. 

Tony caught her staring and gave her a lopsided smile. "I think that's about all I know. I'm sure your scans will tell you the rest." 

The medic behind her started wheeling Wanda into the room, and something about the stark white area filled with scientists made something small and feral in the back of Wanda's mind panic. Acting on instinct, Wanda reached out and gripped Tony's hand. The medic stopped, and Wanda froze too, staring at Tony. 

She let go of his hand after a second, bringing it back to her lap. "Thank you," she said softly. 

"You're welcome," Tony paused a beat, before asking, "Do you want me to keep you company?" 

Wanda looked up suspiciously at him, and found something knowing on his face. Tony looked back into the medical room again, and then at Wanda, eyebrow raised. 

Wanda realized, to her surprise, that she would find his presence comforting. "Yes." 

Comforting, but still a little awkward once the medics had gotten Wanda off the wheelchair and into bed, Helen barking orders to go get a scanner of some kind or another. 

"So," Tony said, grabbing a chair and hauling it up next to the bed. "Natasha told me you wanted us to get to know each other. I have to say, there are better ways of getting that done, huh?" 

Wanda gave a weak laugh in disbelief. The nerve of this man. "If you'd just come to dinner like a normal person, I wouldn't have to go to such drastic measures." 

His grin was charming, and she felt warmed by it. It was a surprise when Helen came up on her other side and said, "Alright, we're going to run a scanning field over you. I need you to lay down." 

Wanda felt her trapped panic start to increase again as a clunky arch was swung over her bed, securing across the railings and stretching over her. It turned on with a hiss, and she had to control her breathing, slow and even, and remind herself that this wasn't Hydra, this was her home. She was safe here, she knew Helen, Helen was trying to heal her, not hone her. 

"You okay?" Tony asked, his voice sounding concerned. 

Wanda swallowed hard, not quite able to keep her voice from breaking as she replied, "Hydra had machines that made similar noises." 

"Aw, hey," she heard the sound of the chair creaking next to her, and Tony was standing up and in her field of vision. "These are all for good, I promise. I can, um, describe them in excruciating technical detail if that would help?" 

Wanda gave a little nod. "That might, actually."

"Excellent. Tech talk. I can do that! Okay, so this bit," Tony pointed to one of the machine's feet, "it's literally just a clamp that keeps it stable and attached to the bedrails. Here's where it gets interesting. This bit here is a magnetic resonator, that feeds the information into this bit, which is…" 

Wanda couldn't understand one in five words he was saying, but it was still relaxing, letting herself be distracted while the machine droned on. Tony's easy comfort with the device was reassuring, and Wanda felt her panic unspool, her breathing deepen and slow. 

* * *

"Perhaps we should check on Wanda?" Vision said when they landed, directing the question at the group. 

"Why don't I take it," Natasha said, stepping to the front of the group. "She's not the type to want a whole group barging in on her." 

"Good plan," Sam said. "But for the record, if I'm in medical, I want the whole group, a cake, a brass band, whatever. If I have to be hurt, I want some fuss made of it." 

"Fuss, noted," Natasha said with a grin, as she slipped off to find Helen, and see how Wanda was doing. And see if there was any Stark-related fallout that needed to be addressed. 

Natasha pulled up short when she walked through the doorway to find the Iron Man suit in a pile near the door, and Tony, still in his underarmor, scanning through his phone at a chair at Wanda's bedside. 

"Everything okay?" Natasha asked, taking in the scene with increasing worry. 

Tony startled up, then put a finger to his lips. He stood up and walked over. "She's good," he said softly. "A lot if internal blood vessels ruptured, but Cho's working her science magic, she'll be right as rain when she wakes up." 

Natasha looked Tony over, then turned back to the sleeping Wanda. "Got over your shyness?" she asked him with a little grin. 

Tony rolled his eyes. "Get out," he said affectionately. 

"And you?" Natasha asked. 

Tony turned back to the bed. "I'm going to stick around here a little longer. Team's gotta look out for each other."

"Yeah," Natasha said, liking what she saw. She reached forward and gave his shoulder a little squeeze. "We do." 


End file.
